Judges 2

The Angel’s Rebuke at Bochim

1The angel of Yahweh went up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land I swore to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you. 2And you, for your part, must make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you must tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? 3So now I say: I will not drive them out before you. They will be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.” 4When the angel of Yahweh had spoken these words to all the Israelites, the people wept aloud. 5They named that place Bochim, and there they sacrificed to Yahweh. 6When Joshua had sent the people away, the Israelites went each to his own inheritance, to take possession of the land. 7The people served Yahweh throughout the days of Joshua, and throughout the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had seen all the great work Yahweh had done for Israel. 8Joshua son of Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died at the age of a hundred and ten. 9They buried him within the borders of his inheritance, at Timnath-heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. 10That whole generation was likewise gathered to their fathers, and after them rose another generation, who knew neither Yahweh nor the work he had done for Israel.

The Cycle of Israel’s Unfaithfulness

11The Israelites did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh and served the Baals. 12They abandoned Yahweh, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and went after other gods, the gods of the peoples around them, bowing down to them; and they provoked Yahweh to anger. 13They abandoned Yahweh and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. 14Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and he gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them; he sold them into the hands of the enemies around them, and they could no longer stand against their enemies. 15Wherever they went out, the hand of Yahweh was against them for harm, just as Yahweh had said, just as Yahweh had sworn to them, and they were in deep distress. 16Then Yahweh raised up judges, who saved them from the hands of those who plundered them. 17Yet they would not even listen to their judges; they prostituted themselves to other gods and bowed down to them. They turned aside quickly from the way their fathers had walked, the way of obedience to the commands of Yahweh; they did not do as their fathers had done. 18Whenever Yahweh raised up a judge for them, Yahweh was with that judge and saved them from the hands of their enemies all the days of the judge, for Yahweh was moved to pity by their groaning under those who oppressed and crushed them. 19But when the judge died, they would relapse and act more corruptly than their fathers, going after other gods to serve them and bow down to them; they would not give up their practices or their stubborn ways. 20So Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and he said, “Because this nation has transgressed the covenant I commanded their fathers and has not listened to my voice, 21I in turn will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. 22I will use them to test Israel — to see whether they will keep the way of Yahweh and walk in it, as their fathers did, or not.” 23So Yahweh let those nations remain, not driving them out quickly; he had not given them into the hand of Joshua.